Liberation War: How did the three major field regiments of the North China Military Region develop in 1948?
In 1948, the three corps under the jurisdiction of the North China Military Region were actually not the smallest of our army in terms of the size of the field troops, and even slightly larger than the Nakano and Nishino at that time, but because of the positioning and combat performance of the troops, they did not obtain the title of Independent Field Army. How did these three corps in North China develop later? Let's explore it today.
In 1949, the Central Military Commission gave two of these corps to Ichino, and the other corps was directly subordinate to the Central Military Commission, so our army did not have the term "five fields". In February 1949, the North China Field Force was typically divided according to the original three corps, and it was reorganized unchanged as it was. First of all, let's look at the original First Corps in North China, which is Xu Shuai's direct subordinate corps, and its combat effectiveness is objectively the weaker of the 16 corps of our army. The three columns of the North China First Corps were the 8th Column, the 13th Column and the 15th Column. It was these three columns that were later renamed the 60th, 61st, and 62nd Armies and formed the 18th Corps. In fact, this corps should be regarded as the first nakano to give to north China, and finally became the central military commission to Nishino, together with the 19th Corps (formerly the North China 1st Corps) to support the attack on the northwest. For this corps, which is not outstanding in its own combat strength, it is a good development to be able to liberate more than 3 million square kilometers of land together.
If the 18th Corps is basically simple, the 19th Corps is relatively complex. The troops of the 19th Corps were the original North China 3rd, 4th, and 8th Columns, which were not exactly the same as the first North China Second Corps. The oldest North China Second Corps should be the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Columns, which is the essence of the whole of North China, of which the 4th Brigade, 5th Brigade, 8th Brigade and 10th Brigade are all the first-class main forces in North China. The 3rd, 4th, and 8th Columns later established the 19th Corps, which were successively changed to the 63rd, 64th, and 65th Armies, which were the most effective corps in the whole of North China, and it can be said that except for one 199th Division, the main force in North China was here. This corps made the greatest contribution to the northwest operation, and later became one of the more prominent of the four corps in the west, which can be said to be the pride of the former North China troops.
Finally, look at the 20 Corps (the old 3 Corps), before the establishment of this corps, North China had a unique bright spot in the whole army, that is, the use of 1 column as a local unit, which is not the case in other field armies. The core of the entire 20 corps is the 2nd Column 67th Army, which is the 5th Brigade and 6th Brigade composed of the remaining 5 Brigades and 6 Brigades after the 19th Corps left a 4 brigade. Don't look at the lack of one main brigade, the remaining two brigades are still stronger than the 1st and 6th columns. The combat effectiveness of this corps is actually slightly stronger than that of the 18th Corps, but it is significantly inferior to the 19th Corps. Among them was the stronger 67th Army. In 1949, the 1st, 2nd and 6th columns were reorganized and renamed the 66th, 67th and 68th Armies. This corps, because it was stationed in beijing and Tianjin after the founding of the people's republic of China, also known as the "Capital Corps", has a taste of the royal forest army, especially the 66th army, if it is not counted in the Korean war, from the founding of the country to the abolition of the country, it has not moved the nest for decades, and it is a standard royal forest army.